Head for golf clubs



Allg- 11, l93l w. .1. HADDEN 1,818,553

HEAD FOR GOLF CLUBS Filed Nov. 30, 1928 l Patented Aug. 11, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE WILLIAM JAMES HADDE, F GLASGOW, SCOTLAND, ASSIGNOR T0 DONALDSON MANU- FACT'URING COMPANY LIMITED, OF GLASGOW, SCOTLAND HEAD FOR GOLF CLUBS Application led November 30, 1928, Serial No.

This invention relates to golf clubs having a head and an easily detachable shaft.

In the manufacture of such clubs, great difficulty has been heretofore encountered in providing a detachable connection between the shaft and the head of such rigidity that the head cannot work slack while the club is in use. p f

In order to overcome this difficulty it has been proposed to provide the club head with a contractible socket, and to clamp the socket to the shaft by means ofva removable screw ferrule, which, when screwed up, contracted the socket on tothe shaft. In other cases the shaft has been split and held in place by screws or otherwise.- Such arrangements are troublesome and costly to manufacture and also weaken the club.

With the object of improving and simplifying the connection between the shaft and the head, it has been proposed in my U. S.

patent application dated 23rd August, 1928,

Serial No. 301672 to effect the connection between the head and the shaft by providing 25 these parts with inter-engaging male and female tapered, or coned2 surfaces of relatively invariable size whlch are drawn, or forced, tightly together by screwed parts on the head and shaft, the connection, when made, being maintained b the frictional, or wedging, action of the Miter-engaging tapers, or cones.

y While this connection has proved highly satisfactory, in practice, it is conceivable that, in some cases such as inaccuracies in manufacture, and in spite of proper precautions, it may be possible for the screwed part to be screwed to its limit before the tapered, or coned, part of the shaft can come against the tapered, or coned, part of the socket with the result that the head will be insecurely held to the shaft.

-The object of the present invention is to obviate the possibility of the head being insecurely held to the shaft.

To this end, the head of the club is provided with a socket having an internally tapered part, a screwed part, and a cylindrical part between the tapered part and the l screwed part.

322,845, and in Great Britain October 23, 1928.

Referring to the drawings which show the parts slightly exaggerated for the sack of clearness.

Fig. 1 is a view of the head and shaft of a golf club, the head being partly in section.-

The head and shaft are both broken off.

Fig. 2 is a corresponding View of the head alone. l

In the drawing, the numeral l denotes the tubular, tapered shaft of the golf club while the numeral 2 denotes the head thereof. The shaft l is a tapered steel tube and the head is of forged steel.

As shown, the head 2 has formed on it a socket, the outer part or shank 3 of which is internally tapered at 4 and the inner part, or extension, of vwhich is internally screw threaded at 5. yThe taper 4 of the part 3 is the counter-part of that of the small end of the shaft l, and both tapers are slight, a suitable taper having been found in practice to be approximately 0.007 to the inch. I, however, do not limit the scope of my invention to this specific degree of taper, but I do limit it to one which will ensure good frictional inter-engagement between the two tapered parts.

Between the tapered part 4 and the screwed part 5, the socket is formed with a cylindrical part 6, the chain dotted lines I-I indicating where the tapered part ends and the cylindrical part begins.

The shaft is tapered up to a point marked 7 a short distance from its end and the remainder is made with a screw thread 8 formed by bending, or shaping, the metal by means of dies or otherwise.

It will be readily seen that, by suitably arranging the proportions `of the parts so that the diameter of the smaller end of the shaft is as near as possible, equal to, or only slightly smaller than, the internal diameter of the parallelv part 6, the shaft will have a travel substantially equal to the length of the part 6 to compensate for any slight inequalities, introduced during manufacture,

In addition, a clearance 9 is left at the bottom of the socket to ensure that the lower end of the shaft will not contact with the lower end of the socket before the frictional inter-engagement takes place between the tapered portions of the shaft and socket.

In manufacture, the head is first forged to the required shape with a shank 3, then the shank is bored to the diameter of and to the depth of the parallel part 6, then the screwed part 5 is formed by boring a hole in extension of the rst hole and concentric therewith but of a proper diameter for the reception of the screwed part of the shaft, then a screw thread is formed in this extended hole by cutting it with a tapping tool capable of forming a helical groove 5 with somewhat rounded convolutions -(see Fig. 2), thereafter the outer end of the hole is partly tapered to form a socket by means of a taper boring tool and finally the taper socket is ground to the required size.

As will be readily understood the screw threaded parts on the head and shaft not only serve to draw, or force, the parts together to give the necessary frictional, or wedging, inter-engagement but also serve for forcing, or drawing, the shaft and head apart in order to overcome the frictional, or wedging, engagement, when it is desired to separate the head from the shaft, this being found necessary owing to .the very tight wedging together of the shaft and socket.

It is to be understood that the construction shown is for one form of golf iron, but the invention can be applied to all clubs. In the case of clubs with wood heads, a special metal socket can be secured therein, the socket having a tapered part, a cylindrical part and a screwed part asy before described.

I claim- 1. A head for golf` clubs having a socket with an internally tapered part at the outer end of the socket, the taper being comparatively slight, a screw threaded part at the inner end of the socket, a cylindrical part Y in the inside of said socket between said tapered part and said screw threaded part, said cylindrical part being of greater diameter than said threaded part and not smaller in diameter than the smallest diameter of y the tapered part, and a clearance at the lower end of said socket of greater diameter than the screw threaded part of thek socket.

2. A head for golf clubs having a socket, a relatively short screwed part forming an extension ofthe inner end of said socket with a relatively lon internally tapered part at the outer end o the socket, the taper being com aratively slight, and a cylindrical part o a diameter e ual to the smallest diameter of the tapere part and greater than that of the screwed part, located between the tapered part and the screwed part.

3. A head for golf clubs having an elongated hollow socket with an internally threaded part at the inner end of said socket, an internal tapering part of slight taper at the outer end of said socket of length relatively greater than that of said screwed part; the screwed part being adapted to receive the screw threaded end of a golf club shaft in order to pull said shaft into frictional engagement with said internal tapering part such engagement causing the shaft and head to be bound very tightl together and the engaging parts being o considerable size relative to the head, to give a relatively large frictional binding area; and an annular clearance zone between said internal tapering part and said internally threaded part, said zone being of diameter greater than that of the internally threaded part, thereby ensuring that frictional engagement between the shaft and internal tapered part of the `socket is -obtained, allowing for inaccuracies in manufacture.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

WILLIAM JAMES HADDEN. 

